To reverse paralysis, scientists wired a man’s brain to his muscles using electronics.
William Kochevar of Cleveland can slowly move his right arm and hand. No big deal—except that the 56-year-old had been paralyzed from the shoulders down since a bicycling accident ten years ago.
The setup that is allowing Kochevar to move his arm again is a “neuroprosthetic” involving two tiny recording chips implanted in his motor cortex and another 36 electrodes embedded in his right arm.
Now, during visits he makes to an Ohio lab each week, signals collected in his brain are being captured and sent to his arm so he can make some simple voluntary movements. “I was completely amazed,” says Kochevar.
With scientists looking on and monitoring banks of electronics, he was eventually able to drink out of a coffee cup and feed himself mashed potatoes, although he needs to rest his arm on a mechanized harness to do so.
